The Sufi Path is a process of amanesis (remembrance, realization). In pre-eternity, God asked the spirits: Alastu bi Rabikum (Am I not your Lord)? When we come into this material existence, we forget about pre-eternity and the task of life is to remember our way back to the truth concerning the nature of our essential relationship with God. This process of remembering or recollecting is known as amanesis.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

In ignorance, ambitionflew to the highest realm,stating: “I wish to be Divine.”Closing, a door creaked with laughterin a gentle way, then,politely, yet firmly, I was sent packing, back toa lower world, much less sublime.

Still foolish, though just a little wiser, I offered tobe a Prophet - which, at the time, seemed quite reasonable a stand - but, then, I learned ... and this took a while ... that if I did myvery best - even, then,my condition would be less than the stations in whichtheir lives began and far belowthe plane which Destiny had set for their spirit’s ascent.

Chastened, my goal was recast -How about the saints, I inquired? Any openings there? The answer came through silence.I began to sense how vast was the difference between the friends of God and the whims of a mystical fraud - so, humbled, I started to livein a simple way, with just a single hope that some fine day my heart might find release from the cocoon I had spun from the fabric of desire.

Peace came to me slowlyafter many years of work,and I forgot aboutthe vain goals which marked the folly of a youth filled with emptiness.

Then, one night in the quietof my soul, a light appeared That made things very clear - if I will try to be my-Self,I might realize the Divine Presence in my being where God and I are as one,except He remains as He is, and I will do the same.

Monday, June 06, 2005

For the last 2-3 weeks I have been busily engaged in learning about podcasting, streaming audio, and related software programs. I have been doing this for a number of reasons.

First, I have decided to discontinue my radio station -- Anab's Sufi Oasis -- which was being aired through live365.com. The reasons for discontinuing the internet radio station have little to do with lack of an audience -- in fact, within three short months, and despite almost no advertising (other than on my web sites), I was very pleased that so many people from such diverse parts of the world were tuning in -- not for just a minute, or so, but for hours at a time.

I am not trying to say the listening audience was in the thousands or even hundreds. However, there were nearly a hundred people who found their way to my station and let me know that they liked what they heard.

In the United States, there were individuals in Oregon, Kansas, Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington, D.C., California, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Connecticut who listend to 'Anab's Sufi Oasis' a fair amount. In addition, internationally, places such as: Ireland, Greece, Japan, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong, and England also tuned in for some extended listening time.

Naturally, I was not about to even remotely compete with the size of the audiences for professional radio stations. Nonetheless, I was quite happy with the number of people who were frequent visitors to my little patch in cyber space during my three months of playing around as an amateur radio station owner.

I can even state, with full honesty, that I made money as a radio station owner. Of course, in order to say this, then, honesty also requires me to point out the amount of money I earned was just in the 4 figure range ... that's four figures as in $11.00 or $12.00 dollars -- and this amount is substantially below what is needed to run the radio station per month.

If I had a better cash flow, then, I might very well have continued on with the programming. But, alas, this is not the case, and, therefore, I have had to consider other possibilities.

One of these alternatives is in the form of streaming audio. As a result, I have begun to populate my web site --

The talk is 23 minutes long, so, you will have to free up nearly an half an hour to be able to listen to it in its entirety. On the other hand, one of the neat aspects of the streaming audio software I am using is that one can move the streaming indicator backwards (if one wants to listen to something again), or skip forward to pick up where one left on the previous occasion in which one was listening. One doesn't have to listen to all of the audio to get to the section one wants to hear.

Furthermore, I have found a program which permits me to tweak the bit rate and sampling rate of the MP3 for those who use dial-up, 56 kbs connections to access the Internet. Consequently, now, even individuals with a slow-speed Internet link also can listen to the streaming audio format which is in various locations around the Spiritual Health.org website.

Right now, aside from a welcoming audio, a few poems, some information about several books which I have published through Bilquees-Press.Com, and the talk, there is not a great deal more in the way of streaming audio which is currently available. In time, I hope to introduce other kinds of material through a streaming audio format that can be listened to by those who are so inclined while visiting the website.

Streaming audio has been fun to do, but I have had an even more enjoyable time with podcasting. This is much closer to the idea of doing a radio-like program.

I especially appreciate the dimensions of podcasting which permit people -- if they so wish -- to be able to download large MP3 files while they are sleeping and, then, have this MP3 synchronized with one's portable MP3 player to be listened to away from the computer at a time of the listener's choice. The software which makes this all possible is referred to as a podcast catcher -- at least, this is how I refer to the software -- which actually goes out into cyberspace and retrieves the RSS/XML feeds to which one has subscribed without you having to do anything ... other than subscribing in the first place (which is as simple as writing an url in a dialog box).

These RSS/XML feeds can either provide summaries of news items, new development, and so on -- together with a link if one wishes to read more, or these feeds can contain enclosures -- which are like e-mail attachments -- containing MP3 files or other audio and/or video files which can be downloaded at a pre-determined time so that one won't have to wait around for the download to be completed or it can be done at a time when it won't matter if it slows down one's internet connection and, thereby, affect whatever else one might be doing with one's computer or the internet.

I have set up a small podcasting section on my website which, among other things, provides some information about some of the best available podcast catchers, provides a free download for one of these catchers, and links for where you can pick up the others -- mostly for free, although there is one commercial version that is listed and has a price associated with it. In addition, I have provided some sample shows which permit a person to get an idea of what such shows might be like and the sort of information which they would contain.